Bangladesh Blackout: Around 140 million people in Bangladesh were without power supply in the afternoon (local time) on Tuesday, October 4, according to the government’s power utility company quoted by news agency AFP.
The blackouts occurred across major regions of the country due to national grid failure.
Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) division, said on his Facebook page that the engineers and technicians of the power grid are working to resolve the issue.
The power supply is likely to be restored by 8 pm on Tuesday, Bangladeshi English-language daily newspaper The Daily Star reports.
The blackouts occurred in the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, and in major Bangladeshi cities Chattogram, Sylhet and Cumilla Tuesday afternoon, the Daily Star reports, quoting officials from the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and Power Grid Company Bangladesh (PGCB).
Palak said that the power supply to Chattogram, a large port city in Bangladesh, will be restored by 9 pm on Tuesday.
He also said that the electricity supply up to the Amin Bazar grid has been fixed. The minister requested everyone to be patient and to refrain from spreading rumours.
Quoting Shameem Hasan, the spokesperson of the BPDB, the report says it is a national grid failure, and several areas of Bangladesh were not getting electricity since around 2:05 pm on Tuesday.
Hasan added that the grid line from Jamuna River to Tongi area had been fixed.
Meanwhile, the chairman of Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) said Monday that the BERC will soon announce a fresh hike in bulk power price, The Daily Star reports.